Salamis

an island off the coast of Attica. It lies due west of Athens. It is separated from the mainland by a long crooked, narrow strait. It was the scene of a celebrated naval battle. After a temporary delay at Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced on Athens and set the city on fire. The Athenians removed their women and children to a place of safety and went aboard the fleet that Themistocles had wisely persuaded them to construct. By the shrewdest kind of management he held his fleet and that of his allies together in the strait of Salamis until the Persians, with a mixed fleet from Asia Minor and halfhearted Greek states, had blocked both ends of the strait and rendered flight impossible. The battle took place September 20,480 B. C. It should be understood that the ships of both contestants were propelled by long oars or sweeps working in oarlocks in the ship's sides. The sailors sat on benches under the deck, and bent to their oars in unison. The fighting men were on the deck above the rowers. Fighting was carried on by throwing out grappling hooks and catching the vessel of the enemy. As the vessels drew together a shower of javelins was let fly, and a hand to hand conflict ensued. Dead or alive, the conquered were cast into the sea.

Themistocles had chosen his location with judgment. Man for man and ship for ship his forces were superior in quality, and were fighting, moreover, in very desperation, for home, life, and family. The narrowness of the strait permitted the ships of Xerxes to come into action no faster than the Greeks were able to dispose of them. The sea was soon full of abandoned hulls and floating wreckage of all sorts. The athletic Greeks with shouts of victory darted hither and thither spearing clinging Persians, "as men spear tunnies." Terror, bred of disaster, spread through the vast Persian fleet. Hundreds of ships crowded into the narrow passage. They blocked each other's way, entangled their oars, and fell a helpless prey into the hands of the Athenians, the smoke of whose burning homes was not calculated to arouse sentiments of mercy. Nightfall stayed the slaughter. Expecting a victory, not a disaster, Xerxes had led his army to the coast of Attica that none who escaped the javelin and the sea might flee by land. He had caused his throne to be erected on a promontory overlooking the strait. After the battle he made all haste by land and sea for the Hellespont lest the Greek fleet cut off his retreat to Asia.